Death of the protest rock song ?

[spiritualized]

I had a startling thought yesterday when listening to my all-time 500 favorite songs with my wife (well actually she expressed it)

Have today's youth (millenials, or whatever you can label them) "lost" the desire for revolution and this transpires in protest songs (you know, the ANGRY ones) being completely phased out of the popular listening experience ?
I am a 40-sthg-old male who started to be into music from a young age (remember my first bought single - P Machinery) and there were a LOT of angry bands (Rage Against the Machine/Ministry/NiN/Nirvana) : their anger was either political or emotional.
The same could be said of the end of the 70s with punk acts (political / Sex Pistols, Clash) or post punk ones (emotional / The Cure / Joy Division).

Yet, it seems the 00s and 10s have failed in bringing up ANY anti-establishment acts that I can name immediately. So either I am not following that trend anymore and there are rock bands out there who portray a politically or emotionally-charged message - maybe that message has moved to hip-hop / R&B - Run the Jewels, perhaps ? - or the young simply don't see themselves in this trend anymore.

Can anyone suggest any recent acts which could fall into the "protest" category ? I guess 2017 needs a new RATM, considering all the sh*t going on at the moment and I don't think Kanye / Frank Ocean or Beyonce are going to stand up to hold the baby...

[Pierre]

Not only that, but I've had the feeling that music critics in general were actually somewhat hostile to protest music today. When I read comments about artists, albums and songs that do convey political messages, it just feels like, "well, they're quite good if you can get past the whole political commentary thing". It looks like they're encouraging artists to be consensual, or to at least keep the anger or irony aimed at everyday life, or at most the media and artistic establishment. But please, no politics, ecology, etc.

I don't know why exactly it's like that. My bet would be that they want to avoid any stance that would antagonize parts of their readership.

That said, when the politics tend to be excessively conservative or when there's a big war going on somewhere, protest music seems to become relevant again, so maybe this trend will change soon.

[PlasticRam]

IMO Kanye has had phases where he has protested against things, for example against gangsta rap and against the fashion industry.

When you ask for protest rock songs, at worst you limit it to one genre. I heard a guy say that after punk there really hasn't been a protest. So it's like he completely missed Nirvana and everyone else cos he couldn't accept it. Of course it could happen in classic-sounding rock music still in the future, who knows. All in all I think one should keep an open mind - it prolly doesn't come in the same form as it used to.

So this wasn't really refuting anything spiritualized said, but what that one guy said

[StevieFan13]

I feel like there's a slow uptick, especially considering critical darlings Arcade Fire and Gorillaz both made their highly-publicized comebacks with songs mocking Donald Trump. And as for Beyonce, I'd say between "Freedom" and "Formation," the latter of which was one of the most critically-adored songs of the last year, she's been doing protest songs too.

[Krurze]

maybe that message has moved to hip-hop

I think this is true, at least to a certain degree. Of course I can only speak from my very specific viewpoint (20-something, living in a big city in Germany), but if there is anything resembling a bigger "youth movement" in music in this very moment, it is that whole dubious "cloud rap" thing. It is very anti-establishment, for example in advocating drug use, albeit not in an explicitly political, but more in a hedonistic kind of way.

There have been some interesting performers coming out of this scene, with Yung Hurn being my favourite. I think this video captures the "vibe" of this movement pretty well, with nonsensical lyrics, DIY-style videos, unconventional humour and showing off the (presumably) hedonistic lifestyle of the performers:

Another song that has become kind of a minor hit and has featured in some German EOY-lists:

You see quite a few people (mostly teens) running around imitating this kind of clothing and lifestyle, and some people have been comparing this movement to the punk movement on the 70's.

Not sure if this is the exact thing you were aiming for, but it's the first thing that came to my mind when I read the original post.

[Nassim]

I guess it kinda moved to hip-hop, Killer Mike has always been in that vein but there are many others, a pack lead by M.I.A, if you consider her hip hop. It also moved to metal, thought they are angry whatever the topic at hand.
Rock protest isn't dead though, it isn't necessarily as angry, musically speaking, as PJ Harvey, Arcade Fire or Fiona Apple can show. I think on the Obama years, white males felt like they both had it good and that think were improving for others, so there were no need to protest for them anymore. So protest came from those who were still being treated unfairly: women (Savages, Sleater-Kinney, Gossip and especially Perfect Pussy ), LGBT (Against Me, ANOHNI, G.L.O.S.S), black people (TV on the Radio, Algiers, Death Grips)... The only "white cisgender" rock bands that are mostly political that come to mind are The Thermals and Fucked Up, though I'm sure there are a lot of less popular one.
That being said, I think it was an effect of Obama being president, and if the last few months are any indication the Trump presidency should see a resurgence of protest music (see "30 days, 30 songs" for instance)

[StevieFan13]

I guess it kinda moved to hip-hop, Killer Mike has always been in that vein but there are many others, a pack lead by M.I.A, if you consider her hip hop. It also moved to metal, thought they are angry whatever the topic at hand.
Rock protest isn't dead though, it isn't necessarily as angry, musically speaking, as PJ Harvey, Arcade Fire or Fiona Apple can show. I think on the Obama years, white males felt like they both had it good and that think were improving for others, so there were no need to protest for them anymore. So protest came from those who were still being treated unfairly: women (Savages, Sleater-Kinney, Gossip and especially Perfect Pussy ), LGBT (Against Me, ANOHNI, G.L.O.S.S), black people (TV on the Radio, Algiers, Death Grips)... The only "white cisgender" rock bands that are mostly political that come to mind are The Thermals and Fucked Up, though I'm sure there are a lot of less popular one.
That being said, I think it was an effect of Obama being president, and if the last few months are any indication the Trump presidency should see a resurgence of protest music (see "30 days, 30 songs" for instance)

Yeah, last year was really the uptick for protest music from all sides, certainly the biggest since the Bush administration.

[spiritualized]

Yeah, last year was really the uptick for protest music from all sides, certainly the biggest since the Bush administration.

Really ? I trawled through last year's top 20 and I can't find more than a couple of politically-charged albums, but then again I haven't listened to some of them. 2017 doesn't seem to have started well on that front either !
Maybe Pierre is right - the potato is too hot to handle for critics and they go "safe".

[StevieFan13]

Yeah, last year was really the uptick for protest music from all sides, certainly the biggest since the Bush administration.

Really ? I trawled through last year's top 20 and I can't find more than a couple of politically-charged albums, but then again I haven't listened to some of them. 2017 doesn't seem to have started well on that front either !
Maybe Pierre is right - the potato is too hot to handle for critics and they go "safe".

Well, maybe not as big, but between "Formation," "Don't Touch My Hair," "FDT," and "We the People," not to mention a load of others, I saw a steady rise that might eventually equal (if not exceed) the amount of politically-charged music from the early-to-mid-2000s.

[DocBrown]

Drive-By Truckers' "American Band" last year was an explicit protest album.

[Jirin]

A lot of the rap I listened to last year protests police brutality.

I don't think it's protest that's out of fashion among the youth so much as sadness and angst. Teenagers want to be seen as always up for a good time so the pop music is about hedonism and partying.

[prosecutorgodot]

I think mainly a little thing called the Internet changed the way people protest.

[bonnielaurel]

Recent protest songs come mostly from other cultures, e.g. Lila Downs ("The Demagogoue") and Aziza Brahim.

[Jirin]

Also I think our culture has reached a point where people are less able to hear just about anything they disagree with without getting angry.

Any message that even has the whiff of a political view is processed through the internet's self validation echo chamber until the chain reaction of exponential rage explodes like a pipe bomb. I've seen separate Facebook posts saying Lady Gaga's super bowl performance was too political and not political enough. Self righteous rage, rage over the rage, and rage over the rage rage ensued.

Half the people get their news from angry hateful groupists who feel the world has stolen their birthright to dominate world culture and think everyone who feels otherwise is an arrogant morally deprived idiot, and the other half get it from comedians who just mock in the key of rationality.

So anyone hoping to make millions of dollars can't even risk that whiff like they could in the 90s. The safe money is relationships and partying.